Bret Harte Poems

Bret HarteFrancis Bret Harte (August 25, 1837 – May 6, 1902) was an American author and
poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California.
Born in Albany, New York, Harte moved to California in 1853, later working there
in a number of capacities, including miner, teacher, messenger, and journalist.
He spent part of his life in the northern California coast town now known as
Arcata, then just a mining camp on Humboldt Bay.
His first literary efforts, including poetry and prose, appeared in The
Californian, an early literary journal edited by Charles Henry Webb. In 1868 he
became editor of The Overland Monthly, another new literary magazine, but this
one more in tune with the pioneering spirit of excitement in California. His
story, "The Luck of Roaring Camp," appeared in the magazine's second edition,
propelling Harte to nationwide fame.
When word of Dickens' death reached Bret Harte in July of 1870, he immediately
sent a dispatch across the bay to San Francisco to hold back the forthcoming
publication of his Overland Monthly for twenty-four hours, so that he could
compose the poetic tribute, Dickens in Camp. This work is considered by many of
Harte's admirers as his masterpiece of verse, for its evident sincerity, the
depth of feeling it displays, and the unusual quality of its poetic expression.